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Saturday, May 31, 2014

Whilst doing some online research last year,
I happened upon an old drawing of mine that had not only vanished from my life,
but also from my memory. The unimaginatively named Untitled(Yellow) 2001,
oil pastel, 76.5 x 57 cm (pictured above) was originally part of a series of prints, paintings
and drawings made between 1998-2004 that focused on the backs of women’s heads.
They are reproduced on the Portfolios page of my website under Knots and Braids – all except this one,
which somehow slipped through the net.A number of the works were exhibited in a solo exhibition in Sydney in
2003. The drawing sold from there and vanished to parts unknown. I can’t
remember the site on which I discovered it, however I downloaded the image and in
all likelihood would have soon forgotten about it again. But in one of the many
instances of synchronicity that mark our friendship, noted iPad artist Deborah McMillionrecommended an app called Butterfly Cam.Straightaway I recognized the potential of incorporating one
of the butterflies featured in the app into my recently unearthed drawing. The intuitive
act of progressively adding yellow butterflies to the drawing sparked an idea
for a fairy tale, the first I’d written in ages. After writing several drafts,
I filed the story and metamorphosed drawing away. Yet again, I almost forgot about the drawing - and the fairy tale too. Deborah McMillion is the only one who ever read the story – at least until now. This
evening I exhumed it, dusted it off, did some minor tinkering, and published it
on my book blog, Moth Woman Press, along with two versions of the re-configured drawing. To read the illustrated story, The Yellow Butterflies, click
HERE.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Incredibly, it's 60
years since David Hockney made his first print, the lithograph Self Portrait, 1954 at Bradford College
of Art. (It's reproduced on the poster pictured above).

London's
Dulwich Picture Gallery recently celebrated this significant anniversary with a
survey exhibition focusing entirely on Hockney's printmaking practice. Better
still, it coincided with my visit to the UK in April. Hockney's prints, for
example, his suites the Rake's Progress, 1961-63and Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, 1969, have had a considerable impact on my work since I saw my first examples in London in the 1970s.

David Hockney, A Rake's Progress, 1961-63, a suite of etchings

The former work was
primarily responsible for fostering an interest in developing narratives by working
serially using literary or other sources as a basis, and incorporating autobiographical
elements. For example, TheThreepenny Opera, 1928 by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill was a
springboard for The Pirate Jenny Prints,
1986-87.

And my little seen, most overtly
personal work, the Alice in the Cities
suite of woodcuts, 1989, took Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through
the Looking Glass as its point of departure. Like Hockney’s Rake,
my protagonist was literally an innocent abroad. To see a handful of the Alice in the Cities prints, click HERE and scroll down. Hockney Printmaker was superb. It included many other personal favourites:

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Sue Verney (left) and Deborah Klein (right) flanking a banner of Elsa Lanchester as the Bride of Frankenstein.
British Film Institute, London, May 2014. Photograph: Shane Jones

The British Film Institute on London’s South
Bank is one of my favourite haunts. I’ve been going there since I lived in
London in the 1970s, not infrequently in the company of one of my oldest and dearest friends, Sue
Verney. I have so many happy memories of this place. For example, it was there,
many moons ago, that Sue introduced me to Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948, Director Max
Ophüls) for which I will be eternally grateful. On
another memorable occasion, I introduced Sue to what became another mutual
favourite, the dazzling film noir Murder My Sweet (1944,
Director Edward Dmytryk).

To my delight, the BFI interior is currently
festooned with banners of Elsa Lanchester(1909-1986) an actress Sue and I have
long admired. (She and I once sat in a pub in Nottinghill Gate and started a fan
letter to her. We finished our drinks, but never did finish the letter – I
guess we just couldn’t find the right words).

Black
Swan, 2013, acrylic on canvas,

12.5 x 7.5 cm

My miniature painting Black Swan, 2013, isa playful homage to Elsa Lanchester in what is arguably her most famous role: The Bride of Frankenstein(1935, Director James Whale). It’s an
extraordinary film and her dual performances as Mary Shelley and the Bride –
particularly the latter - are simply astonishing, albeit far too brief. While
still in London, I looked her up online and discovered an absolute gem – a
two-part interview with Dick Cavett. In Part 1 she speaks of her late husband,
the incomparable Charles Laughton. (1)

On a personal note, however, the real revelation came soon after, when Cavett asked her about The Bride of Frankenstein. In one of the movie’s best remembered
scenes, the newly unbandaged bride first lays eyes on her husband to
be: Frankenstein’s unrequitedly smitten monster, touchingly portrayed by Boris Karloff. Horrified, but having no words, she begins to hiss – a scene once seen and heard, not easily
forgotten. Lanchester tells Cavett that her character's reaction was based on a swan’s warning hisses
and promptly launches into a marvelously spirited recreation of the sound.

Ironically, a swan wasn’t the first choice
for my painting. Initially I considered other animals, including a skunk, but
after much trial and error the black swan, with its downy white flight feathers
was the only creature that worked compositionally. The pictorial reference to
Elsa Lanchester’s portrayal of Frankenstein’s Bride was completely serendipitous
- and not a little uncanny.

Elsa Lanchester and Boris Karloff, The Bride of Frankenstein, 1935

(1) For Part 1 of Dick Cavett's interview with Elsa Lanchester, clickHERE.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

The first print
to be editioned in our new studio at Ballarat is signed, sealed and soon
to be delivered. It's heading for Beastarium,
a print exchange portfolio coordinated by Rona Green. In due course, portfolio
edition no. 40/40 will become part of the permanent collection of Dubbo
Regional Gallery, where it will be exhibited in 2015.

Dubbo Regional Gallery’s
prime collecting theme is The Animal in Art. Inspired by the Gallery’s rural
location and proximity to Taronga Western Plains Zoo, the Animal in Art seeks
to examine issues surrounding the representation of animals in the Visual Arts.
The Animal has been used extensively as a symbol, trophy, object and metaphor.
The collection tackles some of the wider possibilities of this rationale
through works that use the animal as a means of expression whether in a literal
or metaphoric way.

Monday, May 12, 2014

From late March and throughout the better part of April I've been visiting London with my partner Shane Jones.

With an unwanted
souvenir from the UK finally discarded, namely a severe, lingering dose of flu,
there is much to catch up on - but where to start? It seems to me that as good
a place as any is from right where I left off - namely preparing for Biblio at Clunes Booktown.

After a nightmarish
return flight to Australia (we left London on Monday 28 April and, due to a
series of chronic mechanical faults with the planes on both legs of our journey, didn’t
land in Melbourne until Thursday 1 May). In total, we were 32 hours late; there
was just enough time to snatch a little sleep before setting off for Clunes to
set up my stand for Booktown, which ran from 3-4 May.

Biblio, the section in
which I exhibited, focused primarily on artist books. It was great to reunite with book
artists I’ve long known and admired: David Frazer, Angela Cavalieri, Gracia
Haby, Louise Jennison and Dianne Longley, and to have the pleasure of
meeting and admiring the work of Deanna Hitti, Tai Smith, An Kyunghee and
Nicholas Jones (the latter was also Biblio’s curator). The State Library of
Victoria and the Baillieu Libraries also exhibited selected gems from their vast
collections. We received hundreds of visitors and an overwhelmingly
positive response to our work.

Wesley Bluestone Church, the site of Biblio - Artist Books

At the close of Day 1: raising a glass to toast the birthday of the State Library of Victoria's venerable Des Cowley

For more about Biblio at Clunes Booktown, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

About me

I am a visual artist who makes paintings, drawings, prints and book art. In 2009 I founded Moth Woman Press, through which I publish my zines and limited edition books, beginning with ‘There was once… The collected fairy tales’, a small anthology of thirteen original stories illustrated with my prints, paintings and drawings. Currently I divide my time between Melbourne and Ballarat in South Western Victoria.